Happy Accidents

Looking to take those “happy accidents” one step further? Break out your reamp box! Here’s how it works: You record
a dry guitar track with a direct box—without the amp, without effects—capturing only the clean, natural guitar
sound. Then you use a reamping box to send the guitar signal out of your DAW (or recorder) into your amplifier. Mic
up the amp and record that signal to a new track. This technique allows you to dial in exactly the tone you want after
the fact, when you have more time, more control, and more sonic context (that is, more tracks recorded). Shown
here are John Cuniberti’s pioneering Reamp device (left) and the ProRMP reamping box from Radial Engineering.

The title for this month’s column
is inspired by several
recent recording sessions, in which
what seemed like mistakes—or
at least useless things—ended up
being really cool.

In the first case, I was making
a live performance recording of an
improv jazz ensemble, consisting
of a guitarist, bassist, drummer,
and vibes player. The bassist was
using an acoustic upright with a
pickup going into a small combo
amp. For the recording, we had
a mic on his bass and also used a
DI to feed the pickup signal into
the Pro Tools system. Before the
performance even started, the
bassist moved his bass away from
the mic, and we had to get all of
his sound from the DI. At first, it
seemed we had wasted our time
getting a good mic’d acoustic
sound because the mic ended
up pointing into empty space.
Just for kicks, we listened to that
mic track when the recording
was done, and found that it had
captured a pretty cool sound from
the drum kit. With a little EQ
and some compression, it added
nice dimension and depth to the
drum sound when blended in
with the close mics on the kit.

Case number two occurred
while recording a big band with
saxes, trombones, trumpets,
guitar, bass, drums, and piano.
There were lots of mics on the
stage—on individual instruments,
some overhead, and some
out front to capture the full
ensemble sound in the room.
During setup, someone put an
extra mic by the saxes, ran a
cable for it, and it was recorded
to a track—though it wasn’t on
a particular instrument or placed
properly for any sort of ensemble
capture. We decided to give it a
listen anyway and found it was
picking up some sort of washy
sound, but also had a ton of solid
low end. After a little judicious
EQ, this track turned out to be a
useful addition to the overall mix.

The last example took place
when mic’ing up a combo guitar
amp, using some of the multi-mic
methods we discussed in last
month’s column [“The Secrets of Multi-Mic’ing,” June 2011]. I had
one close mic that just wasn’t getting
a very good sound. To clean
up the studio a bit, I moved the
mic away from the amp and set
it off to the side. It was pointed
away from the amp and toward
the rear of the room, but the
signal from that mic was unknowingly
recorded to a track. Once
again, before deleting it, I gave it a
listen and found it had captured a
nice room tone.

I call these sorts of things
“happy accidents,” and they can
also happen outside the realm of
microphones. On occasion, I’ve
accidentally run a guitar track
through processing I had setup for
a drum or vocal track, but ended
up with a great tone. I’ve also
accidentally selected a preset on a
plug-in that was intended for an
entirely different application, but
had the results turn out great.

Sometimes the result is a
totally whacked out sound that
ends up working perfectly for
a particular situation. In other
cases, you may get a beautiful
ambience, or a nice sound that
can double your dry guitar track.
Sometimes you’ll end up heavily
EQing the “accidental” sound
just to bring out a particular
aspect that reinforces the dry
track. As an example, it may be
cutting all the highs on a signal
and then using the results to
enhance the low end in a mix.

As much as we try to control
everything in a recording session,
the point is there’s always
the possibility for something
unexpected to happen. Those
oddball, random things that
occur can occasionally work out
brilliantly. So, why not run with
them? I encourage it! If you’re
getting a great room sound with
a mic that’s pointing the “wrong”
way, take note of where the mic
is placed (so you can put it back
if need be) and try to fine-tune
its position for an even better
sound. Before you delete a track,
give it a listen and see if you can
use it in a supporting role or
turn it into an entirely new element
in your mix. Accidentally
step on the wrong pedal or
choose the wrong plug-in? Give
the sound a chance. Maybe it
will lead you in directions you
never thought you would go.

With most of us using
computer-based recording technologies,
the cool thing is that
there’s very little reason to throw
anything away. If you accidentally
capture a track from a mic
that was set up in the middle
of nowhere, who cares? It’s only
a few megabytes, and with the
huge hard drives most of us have
in our computers, it’s not going
to make much of a difference
whether you delete it or not.

So keep your eye out for those
happy accidents, or even “arrange”
for a few accidents to occur. Who
knows what you may get, where it
might lead, or what inspiration it
might provide?

Mitch Gallagher the former Editor in Chief of
EQ magazine and the author
of six books on recording
and one instructional DVD
on mastering. He operates
MAG Media Productions
and the Sound Sauna studio, and is
Sweetwater’s Editorial Director. His upcoming
book is Guitar Tone: Pursuing the Ultimate
Electric Guitar Sound. mitchgallagher.com

Mitch Gallagher's latest book is Guitar Tone: Pursuing the Ultimate Guitar Sound. He is the former Editor in Chief of EQ magazine. In addition to being a writer, he is a freelance recording engineer/producer/mastering engineer, teaches music business and audio recording at Indiana University/Purdue University, and is Sweetwater’s Editorial Director. mitchgallagher.com.

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